11 comments:

The Pedestrian is a short story that starts off with a man casually just taking an evening walk, that brings unexpected results. For years, he has been going on the same walk every night. All by himself he would walk to dark, moonlit streets. At that time, the streets weren’t rushing with cars, and the sidewalks weren’t flushed with people walking down them. Rather, it was like an empty town of nobody. At some points, he would stand there, still, and close his eyes. No voices or sounds, he would picture as if where he was walking was as if he was in an empty, wintry, windless Arizona desert. Walking, a police officer approaches him, tells him to get into his car to be brought to the Psychiatric Centre for Research on Regressive Tendencies. After that, there's nothing. I think that this connects to my life because of the fact that a lot of kids my age, and younger no longer fein for fresh-air, and to go outside and play at the park, but rather fein for the screens. Their phones and tablets, the TV’s and computer screens. This generation is no longer kids growing up playing in puddles, at the park, not caring if it’s 80 degrees outside or if it's 0 degrees outside. It's more common to see a child on a phone nowadays rather than swinging at a park. We are taken over by technology. The Forecast is a short story describing the way this generation is slowly becoming a restricted environment. People are no longer seeing things for themselves, they get information off the screens. People are no longer believing in their own thoughts, but believe in things/thoughts that others put upon them because that’s the ‘thing’, to go along with everybody else, to be just like everybody else is. We don’t care about anything that has nothing to do with us at the moment. We just want to read the status’s about others, and like pictures that make us laugh, play the TV show that you look up too. I think that this connects to my life because I see my friends in this short story, I see myself, my sister, my mom and my brother. I see an entire generation in this short story. And it’s really unfortunate. We are trapped in the world of social media and popularity. We judge ourselves on the amount of likes a picture gets, we share stories that could be so far fetched from the truth and yet still believe it. Kids aren’t out in the sun, fresh-air playing with each other. Instead, they lock themselves in their rooms and take all precautions to not be disturbed.

The story “The Pedestrian” is mostly about how the people are brainwashed and are suppose to be watching TV non stop and this guy has a writing job but the job is pointless because no one reads there. He went for a walk when he shouldn’t be out walking because it is illegal and then a car arrested him for walking around when it is illegal to be walking people have to be inside sitting down watching TV and being brainwashed and not exercising like you should be. They should be able to work out so they are no longer brainwashed and so that they don’t get weak and fat.

I don’t think this is like my life at all because it is not real and I am a busy person and I don’t have time to watch TV and I barely have time to do my chores at my house now because I am always busy. I am at school and then I go to work then after work which is around 6:00 p.m. and I go work out then I go babysit. The only free time I have is on Saturday because I don’t have school or work, but on Sunday I have church and then I have family night. That is why this is not like my life at all.

In the story “The Forecast” it is saying that our age has made us stay indoors and not want to be outdoors. For being inside a lot we are in semi-darkness and dreaming while we sleep or talk a nap. The world spinning and everything moving the days would seem like it is taking forever. Just like nowadays we are all on the internet or social media or tablets or phones, and that all is taking over our lives. I think kids nowadays they wouldn’t be able to just have a day without social media. But that is just my opinion.

I do think this story is just like my family life because my little nephew and cousins can't go anywhere without their phones, iPod, iPad, tablets, and nooks. I think if we would to have a really bad crises that they wouldn’t even realize because they are too busy being on social media. I wish we weren’t like this but sadly we are and I don’t think that is good because they could become brainwashed and not do anything fun. Like for example last summer my sister had to grounded her son to outside because he couldn’t do anything but be on his ipad.

“The Pedestrian”, is about how this guy named Mr. Leonard Mead who for some reason likes to walk in the early month of November. This short story also takes place in 2052 A.D. On this night he began on the west side near the hidden sea. Later on during this short story Mr. Mead comes across the intersection of CloverLeaf intersection. At this point Mr. Mead comes across this car who comes driving around the corner and this “Metallic” like voice starts to talk from the car telling him to stop where he was, not to move and to put his hands up, or he would be shot. The police then ask what he’s doing. He then replies with nothing but walking just walking for fun, for the air, and just to see things. As the story goes on the police officer tells Mr. Mead to come to the car and get in. Mr. Mead then gets in, and the officer drives past his house. The author then starts to describe how the only house in the entire neighborhood with all of the lights on and working was Mr. Mead’s house.

This story doesn’t really relate to me in any way really, but on the other hand I can say that I’ve most definitely went on the walk just for the heck of it. Yoiu see back in the day when I used to live on the North side of Sioux Falls I used to walk everywhere. That was the only way around for me to get around, that and a bike. I can honestly say that I really don’t understand the meaning of this story other than that i understand that a man in this story is walking around and a police see him and only him walking around.

“Drawing”, this short story is about a six year old boy. A six year old boy who is drawing, and looking for the right colors to match everything that he is coloring. At this point when the story begins, he is looking for the color blue. The color blue for the sky, and as he is looking for the color blue, in his crayon box. He finds the color gray, but the author explains how the color gray is for the rain. The author then starts to think about the color orange that he can see, he also then can see the color yellow so he picked them both up and decided that he was going to draw a sun. After all of this the boy puts all ten crayon’s, which are stubby and short now. Back into the box for another day.

This story kind of relates to me in a way. I know when I was young around the age of six, I didn’t really care how things were. When I was six, I kind of did what I want in a way, at that time I was an only child so getting my way was really easy. I also can remember me stuffing extremely short crayons back into my small box that I had. The only real big difference is he had ten I had twenty-four. Dwight Harris

It was talking about a dry Arizona and a man by the name of Mr. Mead was walking down a side walk and he had said that all the gas station, and everything was open, he was walking down the street at night and he was saying that all the lights were off on everything, like houses, stores, and pretty much everything, and then all of a sudden he got told to put his hands over his head and to not talk unless is asked to, he was then the police had asked him where he lived and he had told him where he lived and then the cops pretty much arrested him and then they were driving down the road and Mr. Mead had saw this house that was the only house that had all the lights on, and it just happened to be his house, he then told the cops that was his house and they ignored him and kept driving.

I could connect this with my life in some ways because I would always walk at night when I was younger and didn't have my drivers licenses yet, I would never get in trouble with the cops though, they usually let me walk around because they knew that my parents knew where I was at all times. But this could relate to a lot of kids and how they would get in trouble if they were caught past curfew, they would probably get a ticket or be brought back home from the cops or the parents would come get them. But it's kind of confusing how he got arrested or whatever happened to him, why couldn't he be outside at night and why was only his lights on at night time while nobody's was on? Something to really think about.

I feel the short story "The Role of the Griot" was explainable at times. I feel like it was like a school, you know with the king and queens, it's almost like they were the popular kids of the kingdom also known as the school, they control how things go and they say how it goes, no if and's or but's. Is that how it really is suppose to be like? All these kings and queens? Aren't we all suppose to get along and be happy and not care what anyone else thinks? I think we should all forget the kings and queens and be happy and do what we want to do, of course they will be well made decisions.

I think I could relate to this with the whole school thing, we do have girls and boys here that think they are better than anyone and everyone. I wont like, at some point in my life I did think I was better then everyone then I realized I will never get anywhere with that attitude and that's when I started to be friends with everyone, you know how before I said there are like cliques in this school? Like the sporty kids, the nerds, the bullies, etc, well I started to fit myself into all, I'm not friends with just a certain group, I'm friends with about everyone from other groups and I think this is how the world should be because we would all be better people and get along better and we would probably have a happy life.

The Pedestrian Well this short story is confusing but i'll explain it the best I can. This story takes place about 50 years into the future and this man is just out on a walk on a chill November night, You see that he explains that there is just dim lights of television screens inside of the houses of the brainwashed people that just sit there and watch television. And then a police vehicle asks him what he is doing and asks him why he is out walking and seems appalled that the man just wanted to walk outside and get fresh air. Eventually the car just told him to get in and basically is arresting him for being outside when he wasn't supposed to. And then he says something about his lit house but that seems unimportant.

I don’t think I can connect to this short story with anything in my life at all, I am not one to oppose laws or go outside just for some “Fresh Air”. I feel like the author is trying to say that one day everyone will become robots just programmed to watch television or something, There is no use out of that, It will never happen.

The ForecastThis story says how we like to be inside and have everything told to us and how some of our lives are controlled by technology because they chose to become dependent on it. I'm not quite sure if this short story is a prediction of the future or if it's trying to say something about the present but it seems like these chose to have their lives controlled by technology. Humans are not robots and they should never be intermixed, it would be an abomination.

Okay I spend allot of time indoors but I don't chose to let technology take over my life, It’s a complete choice to have a TV, Cell Phone, Lights and Cars. But having technology improves our lives and it just seems this author is worried about it for some reason. If a person chooses to live their life with technology ruling them then so be it.

The Pedestrian is about a man who wanders the streets at night and appears to be the only one who does so. A police car stops him and later arrests him because of his odd behavior. Mr. Mead’s behavior doesn’t exist in this new age of technology. People don’t walk around anymore, they are supposed to stay in their homes, and there is only one police officer who is just technically a car. This story tries to show that future technology will destroy the traits that make us human.

I can't connect this story to my life because I don't see anything relatable.

The next short story I read was The Role of the Griot. It is about how when we are born outside our homeland we forget about our traditions and heritage. The Griot's role was to maintain these traditions for the past and the future. In their African society, the Griot was highly respected and was closer to the kings than their wives. This short story was written to educate the reader about the author's heritage in Africa and how important it is to keep it alive.

I can connect to this story because I don't know much about my heritage or where I come from. I am mostly German and Irish and that is all I really know. I have asked my grandparents a long time ago about our origins and I don't remember much. I'll have to ask them again sometime but some how I am related to one of the founders of Studebaker automobiles.

1.A man walking around in the dark with silence of the city around eight o'clock in November. sometime he would walk for hours and miles and only return at midnight to his house. On his way home from walking back he would see the cottage and the homes with dark windows,and it was like walking through a graveyard. He could see lights flickering in the darkness. He heard whisperings among the building.

2.On one night he began his journey in a west like direction and towards the hidden sea. The was crystals in the air and it cut the nose and the lungs. The blazing of the christmas tree in side and the lights flashing outside. The branches falling onto the invisible snow 3.

1.He would walk when it was cold like frosty air like the smoke of a cigar.His lights in his house are on alot later then most people. One day he was walking and was about a block away from his house and the cops pulled him over. The cop asked for his address to see if he was just walking. He had to sit in the back of the cop car and he described it like a little black jail with bars and he said it smelled like riveted steel. He told the cop thats my house and the cop didnt stop and kept going. 2.I always go on walks at night even when its really cold out and frosty air comes out of my mouth kinda like smoke from a cigar. I normally take turns walking and running though. My lights at night are on until like 1-2 every night and not many other peoples lights are on that late at night. One night I was walking by myself at 11 o'clock and was about 3 blocks away from my house and a cop turned on his light and pulled next to me and asked if I needed a ride.The cop asked for my address because he wanted to follow me home to make sure I made it home safe. 3. In the old glory his grandfather was the craziest man he ever meet. His gram-pa said that the flag is ridiculous. Then his father told the gram-pa to sit down and be quiet. He is always afraid his gram-pa will get him in trouble. His grand-pa asked if he was scared and if all the schools like him a scared little sheep. 4. Its the same for me but its my uncle he is craziest person I ever meet but in a different way. My uncle is crazy because he is vary funny and acts like a little kid. My grandma when we are eating tells him to sit down and be quiet because he messes around with everyone well they are eating. Im always afraid my uncle will get me in trouble.Dusty Josten

1. The Pedestrian is about walking in the dark, this person is walking around eight o clock in the misty evening in November. Steps in the grassy seams make your way. Mr. Leonard Mead most dearly loved and really supported guy. He would stand in the middle of the intersection in the night and peer long moonlit avenues of sidewalk. A.D. 2052. Sometimes he would walk for hours and miles and return only at midnight to his house. Mead would always walk through graveyards. He always watches TV channel 4,7,9. He would pause cock his head listen, march on.

2.In my life I see alot Pedestrians walking around and especially at nighttime . I don't walk around at night unless i'm with someone. How it connects with my life is by like kidnapping,rape,crimes all of the things we hear today, that sometimes it leads to the Pedestrian. Im i am a pedestrian too sometimes. He would never talk to people he was always ignnore alot people. Morgan Rolfson

The Pedestrian is about a man who walks around at night and he is the only one in his town he has never seen anybody else he has no wife so it is a tradition for him to walk every evening it is said to believe that he is the only one who ever walks in his town or society.When he is walking there is a police car that stops him and then orders him to put his hands in the air and as he is doing so he answers the questions that the policeman asks him The police car is the only car is the area.Sometimes I just go on walks around my neighborhood in the dark hours of the night and I sometimes feel that I am alone and nobody is anywhere to be found and the air is quiet and not a sole in sight and sometimes feel all alone and like there is nobody to come to and I just feel as if I have a duty in my life and town to make sure that nobody is alone in this world and if they are to lend them a helping hand and try and be like the policeman and help anybody who might need it or want it, it is my sole duty.The Role Of The Griot is about the meaning of the word “Jali” which is a term for stone or special screen.As the bride and groom leave the town hall in Bingerville, just west of Abidjan, a group of women sing and dance. The lead singer cups her hands around a small megaphone to project her voice. They sing the praises of the just-married woman, and gather around the more affluent members of the wedding party, praising their nobility and beauty – all with a twinkle in their eyes and an expectation of reward.The griot expects a reward for his services as part of a patronage system of wealthy lords, though some griots may also practice a separate trade on the side, such as leather work. A griot does not belong to one person; he belongs to all of society. Bakary explains his position.

The Pedestrian is a short story written by Lois Lowry. It is about a man that is taking a midnight stroll, which he has done every night for years. First he walks to an intersection and chooses which way he wants to go, once he does that he walks in that direction and takes time to think about all kinds of things like what people are watching like cowboys and old war movies. He continues to walk and a car pulls up in front of him and shines a bright light onto him and starts to ask him questions and he answers all of them and then he realizes that the car is a cop car “the last one in the city”. The car tells him to get in and he says that he opposed it but still got into the car and it takes him past his house and off to an unknown location.It is kind of hard to connect this story to my life because I have never had an experience like what happened in this short story. I have gone for walks late at night tho, there was a time that I rode my dirt bike down the road about 3 miles and when i got there the chain snapped, so I left it there for the rest of the day because I had to go to work. Later that night at about 10 pm I started to run there and then I walked my motorcycle back to my house and it took me about an hour and a half all together.For the second short story I red Old Glory. I chose this one because the first line had the word grandfather and I have a very good relationship with my grandpa and he is one of the biggest influences in my life, so I started to read more and it got me interested and ended up reading the whole thing. This story starts out with a family watching TV. And they start arguing about the new S.O.S law, the grandfather says that it is an abomination and that he does not like it, while the others tell him to calm down. Than the grandchild talks to him and they argue a little bit between the two of them. and then he goes to bed knowing that his grandfather was going to do something crazy the next day so he calls the lawmen and told them about his grandfather. The next morning his grandfather went up in a bunch of people and started to try to light the flag on fire even tho he knew that it was fireproof. and then the lawmen shot him down.I can relate this to my life because I also love my grandpa very much, but never in a million years would I turn in my grandpa for something like that, I love him way too much to do something like that to him.